Fun Animal Facts

Our random animal facts are a both fun and a little bit weird but they will keep you entertained for days!

WTF Fun Fact 12922 – The Canary Islands Are Named for Dogs

The Canary Islands usually make us think of the little yellow bird. But Canary doesn’t come from the bird’s name, rather, it comes from the Latin word Canaria (as in canine). The ancient Romans called the islands Insula Canaria, or “Island of the Dogs.”

The Canary Islands

The Canary Islands is a Spanish autonomous region near Morocco composed of 7 large islands and many more smaller islands. You may have heard of the second largest island – Tenerife – which is home to early 1 million people.

There is volcanic activity on some of the islands, which also house the world’s third largest volcano – Mount Teide on Tenerife.

While there is a dog breed popular on the Canary Islands – the Presa Canario – they are not native to the islands and were introduced by the Spanish. They are a type of mastiff used for guarding and herding. They were also used in dogfighting until it was outlawed by Spain in the 20th century.

How are the Canary Islands related to dogs?

Just look at the coat of arms of the Canary Islands, and you’ll see dogs instead of birds.

According to World Atlas (cited below): “The archipelago’s Spanish name Islas Canarias is derived from the Latin phrase Canariae Insulae which means the “island of dogs.” King Juba II of Mauretania, an ancient Kingdom in the Maghreb, is thought to have named the island of Grand Canaria named the island Canaria due to the presence of many large dogs on the island. Eventually, the entire archipelago became referred to as the Canary Islands.”

However, some believe the Roman name comes not from the presence of dogs but the worship of the creatures on the island. The original inhabitants of the islands were the Guanches, who mummified dogs (perhaps related to the Egyptian practice and the dog-headed god Anubis). It’s unknown how dog worship may have worked or if the animals were just considered holy creatures.

— WTF fun facts

Source: “Did You Know That The Canary Islands Are Named After Dogs?” — World Atlas

WTF Fun Fact 12909 – The Land Animal That Lived The Longest

This is something that will make you appreciate how our modern world is still so, so young. The longest-lived creatures are older than any of us, and most were or are older than our desire or ability to record their age for posterity. That said, we do have records of the land animal that lived the longest that we can properly verify. Other animals may have lived longer, but we don’t have reliable ways to prove it.

The radiated tortoise – one of the longest-lived animals

When it comes to sea creatures, we’re even more clueless as to age, and we endanger them by trying to find out. But it’s a bit easier with land animals, especially tortoises since they don’t move very fast.

As far as things we can verify are concerned, a radiated tortoise from Madagascar named Tu’i Malila is the longest-lived land animal. And here’s another fun fact – all its life, Tu’i Malila was thought to be a male. Upon her death, a proper examination was conducted, and it was determined she was female. (Some tortoises obviously don’t have obvious sex characteristics.)

The story of Tu’i Malila

Tu’i Malila means “King” Malila in the Tongan language and records show that Captain James Cook gave her to the royal family of Tonga shortly after her birth in 1777. She stayed in the royal family’s care her whole life until her death in 1965.

The radiated tortoise (a classification that has nothing to do with radiation but rather the pattern on their shells) is now preserved and on display at the Tongan National Center on the island of Tongatapu.

Other “oldest” animals

However, there is some disagreement over what counts as the oldest living animal. Some argue that an Aldabra giant tortoise from India named Adwaita lived to be around 255.

This year (in January 2022) the keepers of a giant tortoise named Jonathan have convinced the Guinness Book of World Records that the animal from St. Helena turned 190.

— WTF fun facts

Source: “The King of Tonga” — The Good Turtle Blog

WTF Fun Fact 12908 – Lincolnshire Wildlife Park’s Swearing Parrots

Five African grey parrots at the UK’s Lincolnshire Wildlife Park got separated by staff because they were perceived as having a “bad influence” on one another. Someone taught the parrots to swear. And there’s a reason they call repeating things “parroting.”

While no guests complained, the zoo took the proactive step of separating them in case any visiting children ever decided to parrot the parrots.

Parrots and profanity

According to The Guardian (cited below), “The parrots – named Billy, Elsie, Eric, Jade and Tyson – joined Lincolnshire Wildlife Park’s colony of 200 grey parrots in August. But soon after, they started encouraging each other to swear.”

“We saw it very quickly – we are quite used to parrots swearing but we’ve never had five at the same time,” Steve Nichols, CEO of the wildlife park reportedly said. “Most parrots clam up outside, but for some reason these five relish it.”

No one got rid of the parrots – they were simply “distributed to different areas of the park so they do not ‘set each other off.'”

Naughts parrots

Guests weren’t put off at all by the parrots. In fact, as you might expect, they drew people into the facility. “People have come to us but they think it’s highly amusing, we haven’t had one complaint,” Nichols said, according to The Guardian. “When a parrot tells you to fuck off, it amuses people very highly. It’s brought a big smile to a really hard year.”

We know some humans who offer that service for free as well, but someone it just seems less rude coming from a parrot.

The paper also noted that “The park is also home to parrot Chico, who made headlines in September after learning to sing a range of pop songs, including Beyoncé’s If I Were a Boy.”

It sounds like quite an interesting place! — WTF fun facts

Source: “Swearing parrots separated after telling folk where to go” — The Guardian

WTF Fun Fact 12905 – Monkey Blamed for Fake 911 Calls

It’s illegal to make fake 911 calls, so the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office tried to track down the culprit of a recent dial-in. They also wanted to make sure no one need their help on the end of the suddenly disconnected call. The tracked the phone down to the “Zoo To You” near Paso Robles and deduced that it was likely a Capuchin monkey that made the call.

Finding the source of the call

Dispatchers tried to call and text back when the call first came in. Then they sent in the police, only to find that no human on the premesis had any idea what they were talking about.

The call came from a cell phone that was left in a golf cart used on the property.

They finally deduced that a Capuchin monkey named Route had apparently picked up the zoo’s cellphone, which was in a golf cart used to move about the property.

In a Facebook post, they recounted the story:

“Our Deputies have seen their fair share of “monkey business” in the County. But nothing quite like this.
It all started Saturday night when we received a 911 call that had disconnected. Dispatchers tried to call and text back but they received no response. So Deputies were sent to investigate.
The address took them to the offices of Zoo to You near Paso Robles. No one there had placed the call.
Was someone trying to make us look like a monkey’s uncle?
Then they all realized… it must have been Route the Capuchin monkey.
Apparently, Route had picked up the zoo’s cell phone… which was in the zoo’s golf cart… which is used to travel around the zoo’s 40 acre site.
We’re told Capuchin monkeys are very inquisitive and will grab anything and everything and just start pushing buttons.
And that’s what Route did… just so happened it was in the right combination of numbers to call us.
As you can tell from these photos, Route is a little embarrassed by the whole thing. But you can’t really blame her, after all monkey see, monkey do.”

Emergency monkey dial

You’ve no doubt heard of the infinite monkey theroem that posits that a monkey sitting at a typewriter for an infinite amount of time would eventually get around to typing out a full line of Shakespeare.

Abstract statistical metaphors aside, it turns out the a Capuchin with a cell phone and nothing else to do will eventually press 9-1-1-send. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Capuchin Monkey Accused Of Calling 911 From California Zoo” — HuffPost

WTF Fun Fact 12901 – Blue Whale Calorie Intake

It’s no surprise that a blue whale’s calorie intake is massive – after all, they’re the largest creatures on Earth (and the largest animal to ever live). But half a MILLION calories is a lot to take in – especially in just one mouthful of food!

Blue whale feeding

The majority of a blue whale’s diet consists of tiny shrimp-like creatures called krill (interestingly, one of the smallest ocean creatures). According to Smithsonian Magazine (cited below): “A foraging whale lunges into a swarm of these shrimp-like animals, accelerating to high speed with its mouth open at a right angle. Pushed back by the rush of water, its mouth expands and its tongue (itself the size of an elephant) inverts to create more room. The whale engulfs up to 110 tonnes of water and any krill within is filtered out and swallowed.”

Jeremy Goldbogen studies blue whales at the University of British Columbia. He tagged 265 of the massive creatures to log the amount of energy they expended while lunging to eat. His devices recorded information for 650 feeding lunges.

“The data-loggers recorded the whales’ position, their acceleration, and the noise and pressure of the surrounding water. The noise was important – by measuring the sound of water rushing past the animal, Goldbergen could work out how fast it was travelling.”

Blue whales can move up to 8 mph in less than a minute and 770 to 1900 calories just to work up the momentum to take that big gulp of ocean water. An average feeding dive takes about 10 minutes, and the whales take around 3 to 4 gulps in that time. But they consume from 6 to 240 times the amount of calories they expend.

Blue whale calorie counting

If a blue whale expends so much energy simply diving for food, it makes sense that they would have to take in an enormous number of calories to make it worth the trouble. But it’s hard to believe just how many calories they can take in.

Smithsonian Magazine states: “If a big whale attacks a particularly dense swarm, it can swallow up to 500 kilograms of krill, eating 457,000 calories in a single monster mouthful and getting back almost 200 times the amount it burned in the attempt. A smaller whale lunging at a sparse collection of krill would only get around 8,000 calories, but that’s still 8 times more than what it burned. Even when Goldbogen accounted for the energy needed to dive in search of prey, the whales still regained 3 to 90 times as much energy as they spent.”

This makes it easier to think of all of the rest of our meals as relatively low-calorie, by comparison. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Blue whales can eat half a million calories in a single mouthful” — National Geographic

WTF Fun Fact 12900 – Goldfish Bowls Are Banned in Rome

If you want to keep a goldfish in a simple round, glass bowl, don’t move to Rome. While many people believe the myth that goldfish have no memories, that’s simply not true. Research has shown that they do, in fact, remember things. And that’s part of the reason goldfish bowls are banned in Rome.

What’s wrong with goldfish bowls?

The bowls in which many people house their goldfish are quite small compared to the distance the fish like to swim when free. That makes many people believe that it’s cruel to keep them in such a small space with so little stimulation.

According to CBC News, “Rome’s daily newspaper Il Messaggero reported that round bowls cause fish to go blind. Animal activists call the bowls cruel, while fish experts say the bowls don’t provide enough oxygen.”

In 2005, Rome’s city councilors decided that it would ban spherical goldfish bowls for the health of the fish. It also banned giving away goldfish and other animals as prizes.

“The Roman bylaw also prevents animal owners from clipping dogs’ tails or trimming cats’ claws for visual appeal or leaving animals in hot vehicles or store windows. It also offers legal protection to people who feed colonies of cats.”

The fight for (all) animal rights

Rome also made it a law that all owners need to exercise their dogs daily, and that failure to walk your dog could mean a fine of $700.

It’s all part of a trend across the world to secure the well-being of pets, remind people of their responsibilities when they adopt an animal, and try to prevent pet owners from treating animals as simply property instead of living beings entitled to a certain quality of life.

While it’s unclear exactly what effect the law has had, it’s likely made some people second guess their behavior towards animals. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Rome bans ‘cruel’ goldfish bowls” — CBC News

WTF Fun Fact 12897 – The World’s Oldest Cat

The world’s oldest cat was named Creme Puff – and the furry girl held on until age 38! It’s all been confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records.

The story of Creme Puff

Creme Puff was owned by Jake Perry, who can safely be called a legendary cat owner (as well as a husband, father to humans, and plumber). He also adopted and found homes for hundreds of cats over his lifetime. But even more stunning is that Perry had been the owner of the previous record-holder for longest-lived cat before Creme Puff came along!

That cat, Granpa Rexs Allen was part sphynx and part Devon Rex mix, and he lived to age 34.

Creme Puff was a mixed tabby cat.

What’s Perry’s secret to cat longevity?

As you might imagine, Perry treated all of his cats as they so richly deserved. He built a theater in his garage that played nature documentaries for his cats to watch. He remembered and celebrated their birthdays every year (which, if you think about it, is A LOT of birthdays). Perry even had steps built all over the walls of his house so his cats would have things to climb on to stay engaged and stimulated.

Most importantly, he insisted that a loving relationship is the secret to cat longevity.

The diet Perry fed his cats is more questionable (or is it, since 1/3rd of the cats he’s owned have lived to be 30?). According to Atlas Obscura (cited below, with an excellent story on Perry) the cats’ daily diet had a few extra fixins’ on top of dry commercial cat food, including “a home-cooked breakfast of eggs, turkey bacon, broccoli, coffee with cream, and—every two days—about an eyedropper full of red wine to ‘circulate the arteries.'” (Note, caffeine and alcohol are not recommended for cats, nor is that much human food, so there much be some other secret – or it all goes together in some perfect feline-friendly way.)

Perry’s vet of choice is Bruce Hardesty, the owner of South Congress Veterinary Clinic in Austin, Texas. He’s seen 40 or 50 cats Perry has owned over the years. He believes at least 6 of Perry’s cats have reached age 30. – WTF fun facts

Source: “How to Raise a 165-Year-Old Cat” — Atlas Obscura

WTF Fun Fact 12385 – Ladybugs are Cannibals

Do you remember being told as a kid that having a ladybug land of you is good luck? Well, that might be the case for humans, but in the ladybug world, these creatures have to watch their backs. Ladybugs have some interesting behaviors – like cannibalism.

Are ladybugs cannibals?

Yes, ladybugs (also called ladybirds – another thing we didn’t know) will eat their own kind. But not just for fun – they have to be in the right situation. Still, if you check out ladybug habitats, you can find pieces of half-eaten bugs all over the place.

According to The Laidback Gardener (cited below): “Some species lay a mixture of fertile and infertile eggs. When the larva, which does not resemble the adult ladybug at all, but looks vaguely like a small alligator, is born and if it finds no other prey nearby (aphids, scale insects, mites, whiteflies, etc.), it will first eat an infertile egg to gain strength. Then, if the other larvae don’t disperse rapidly, it will eat them too. Even adults will readily eat larvae or even other adults when they have the opportunity.”

Small alligators? Rampant cannibalism? We’ll never look at ladybugs the same way again!

Other interesting facts about ladybugs

You may have also noticed that ladybugs smell pretty bad. It’s definitely the case when you squish them (which isn’t advisable, though they can infest houses – especially windowsills – in the summer). They also emit an odor when they’re just “disturbed.”

To top it off, humans are especially sensitive to the chemical compounds emitted by ladybugs, so they’re especially stinky to us – even when they emit low levels of their odors.

If you happen to have a ladybug invasion, yellow ladybugs are safer to pester than orange ones. Orange ladybugs are the stinkiest of all.  – WTF fun facts

Source: “Gentle Ladybugs are Actually Cannibals” — Laidback Gardener

WTF Fun Fact 12834 – Horned Lizards Can Shoot Blood From Their Eyes

Have you ever seen a horned lizard shooting blood from its eyes? We’d rather not, but there’s no denying it’s a thing they’re able to do.

The North American Horned Lizard

These lizards have blood-filled sinuses in the eye sockets that they can cause to swell and rupture in self-defense. And, to be fair, we’d probably back away from any animal that shoots blood at us out of anywhere, much less its eyes.

Who wants to mess with that?!

Shooting blood in self-defense

According to AskNature (cited below), “North American desert horned lizards have a wide range of predators within their habitat. One unusual defense mechanism involves the flooding of their ocular sinuses, tissues found below their eye, with blood. When a horned lizard feels threatened by a predator, its final defense response is to shoot blood from these flooded sinuses and out its eye sockets. As a result, the predator is often frightened and flees. The lizard also uses this mechanism to remove foreign particles from the surface of its eyes.”

Neat trick!

How does lizard blood shooting work?

To be more precise, the horned lizard has major veins around its eyes that are surrounded by two muscles. They can make these muscles contract to cut off blood flow, trapping blood in the head and preventing it from moving down to the heart.

Eventually, this blood fills their ocular sinuses. And if they continue to contract the muscles, they can create enough pressure to make the blood flow (or spew) right out of their eyes. This process is called auto-hemorrhaging.

While it sounds like it might be the last gasp of a terrified creature, the horned lizard can actually shoot blood this way multiple times in a short period. And we don’t quite understand precisely how they so rapidly recover from this blood loss – only that they do. – WTF fun facts

Source: “Blood-filled sinuses within the eye sockets of horned lizards squirt blood in self-defense by swelling and rupturing” — AskNature